Apple's Device Model Beats the PC Way 445
Carl Bialik from WSJ writes "Walt Mossberg argues in the Wall Street Journal that Apple's model for PCs and devices is beating Microsoft's. In early battles for dominance of the PC market, Microsoft's component-based platform crushed Apple's end-to-end model, he says. But in today's post-PC era, where the focus is on music players, game consoles and cellphones, the end-to-end model is the early winner. From the column: 'Even the Mac isn't as closed as its critics charge. It's still designed to work with Apple's own operating system and software. But it can handle all the common files Windows uses, can network with Windows machines, and can use all of the common Windows printers, scanners, keyboards and mice. The Mac gives you the same access to the Internet as Windows. Heck, the newest Macs can even run Windows itself.'"
What? (Score:3, Informative)
What? Then please explain the following:
http://television.aol.com/in2tv/
http://www.movielink.com/ [movielink.com]
http://www.vongo.com/ [vongo.com]
There are still quite a few things on the Internet you can not do with a Mac. Leopard, if it includes built in virtulization, can't get here fast enough.
Re:What? (Score:5, Informative)
As a slashdot user, I'm disappointed you didn't go on a rabid rant about how DRM is evil and will destroy everything we've ever worked for.
The article submitter... (Score:4, Informative)
This for an article published on the WSJ web site.
I think that about says it all.
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Re:Can Network With Windows Machines (Score:1, Informative)
It links to this [afp548.com] as well.
Re:I Like Components... (Score:3, Informative)
But what about the Games!? (Score:5, Informative)
I don't see any third parties being given access to the Mac's core to provide alternative end-to-end device solutions. Their end-to-end model is nothing more than Plug-n-Play when it comes to third partys.
My critisizm... Where are the games? [ugo.com]
One of the biggest reasons new PCs are purchased as well as all of the new componants for the PCs are the games. Video games can be directly attributed to the reason computers are getting pushed faster and faster in the consumer market. Up until vista, the non gaming user would never need a 128Mb DX10 graphics card. People don't need a PPU to use Excel. Heck, even laptops have been hovering at 1.7Ghz for the last 3 years!
Apple has yet to get the support of the gaming development companies. Sure there are a few games getting released now and then, usually months or years after the general PC/Console release.
Has Apple even attempted to get into this market?
Re:Software is the reverse (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Software is the reverse (Score:3, Informative)
From the user interface, Apple does not provide any way to remove or replace [Dashboard|Finder|Spotlight|Dock]. Yes, there's hacks to change these things, but similar things exist on Windows as well. All of this is very tightly integrated from the User's POV and not "removeable and replaceable".
On a technical level [Dashboard|Finder|Spotlight|Safari|Dock] are very integrated into system libraries and share a lot of code. Just like [IE|Explorer|Outlook|ActiveDesktop] on Windows. If there's any significant architectural difference between how IE works on Windows and how Safari works on OS X, I'd like to hear about it.
Re:Software is the reverse (Score:4, Informative)
Dear God Man!
If Raymond read that, he would die, bury himself & start spinning.
From wikipedia [wikipedia.org] (as ESR is a nutcase & I won't link to his new book).Both Apple & MS follow cathedral models - what you're thinking of is a unixy 'lots of useful little bits you can string together' vs 'big monoloithic and single use' models.
Re:macs are great (Score:5, Informative)
Re:USB != "Windows" device (Score:2, Informative)
Re:I Like Components... (Score:3, Informative)
The new Intel Macs are regular PCs. Within the limits of the form-factor, they are just as upgradable as a PC. For example, you can pop out the CPU on an iMac and stick in whatever Core Duo chip you want. You can't upgrade the motherboards on the current set of Intel Macs, but that's mostly a result of the fact that the iMac and Macbook use laptop components, and thus the motherboards use a custom form-factor.
Re:whatever... (Score:3, Informative)
And just what accessories are you talking about? All Macs come with USB and Firewire ports, and I've rarely seen something . Do you mean a clunky old PS/2 keyboard? 1997 called, they want their standards back.
If you want to play games, fine, then the Mac isn't for you. I use mine for iLife, web surfing, e-mail, development, and the weekly multiplayer Neverwinter Nights on family game night. While you might be able to build a cheap box, my time is limited because of job and family; the cost of building and maintaining my own box, and keeping Windows secure and running infection-free, would cost me too much of my time.
Re:I Like Components... (Score:3, Informative)
Last, but not least, the original (single) 867 MHz G4 CPU has been replaced with a dual 1.6 GHz G4 setup. The CPU upgrade required a firmware change and a screwdriver (to remove the heat sink). The rest was like, pop it open and pop in the upgrade. Doing all that made it go from feeling like a five-year-old computer to feeling almost brand new. Now the slowest part of my home setup is my DSL line. I wish I could get a full 5 Mbps connection!!
All that having been said, I'm still thinking about the new MacBook Pro Core Duo systems. I feel like after waiting 5 years, I deserve to make an upgrade :-)
Re:Software is the reverse (Score:2, Informative)
Well...you didn't mention how easy it was to remove or replace any of them. Safari is certainly easy to avoid. But the rest are pretty heavily hardwired into OSX. Dashboard is probably the second easiest to kill [google.com], or replace with Konfabulator [wikipedia.org]. The awful OSX Finder can be replaced with Pathfinder [cocoatech.com] which is finally starting to work like the Finder should have all along, but it took years of work for a company to figure out how to do it, when the Finder should have included enough hooks to make it easy for lots of companies to add functionality without replacing the whole thing monolithically. The Dock can now be fairly effectively eliminated and replaced with half a dozen [google.com] different methods, but again, it took years for the community to figure out how to kill that damn bastard piece of software in a clean way. Steve Jobs' biggest flaw is that he doesn't understand the difference between cool shiny stuff and productivity software. His second biggest flaw is that he thinks his way is the only correct way, and users shouldn't be allowed to get rid of his shiny babies and replace them with useful tools.
If you know how to remove and replace Spotlight and return to previous Finder file searching capability (one of the few good things about the 10.3 Finder), would you be so kind as to inform those of us who think Spotlight is the Spawn of Satan?
P.S. I know about EasyFind [apple.com] . It's a stopgap. It's not as good as the 10.3 find function and it doesn't bind to Cmd-F.
Re:Actual Email sent to Walt Mossberg (Score:2, Informative)
Walt asked you a good question, which you never answered.
By the way, an extensive security update just arrived in Software Update yesterday, and I believe it clears up some of your overheated security objections. The vulnerabilities in OS X are a matter of concern, but the fact is, nobody has been bitten. So it is somewhat comic to hear someone assume that Mac worms and viruses are somehow approaching Windows. I've also heard the MS FUD about how vulnerable Linux is, and there's always scary-sounding stats behind it. Except any linux users I talk to laugh like crazy when you cite these articles.
I hope that Vista cleans up the mess on the MS side. I have a virus checker on my Mac, but so far, all it's done is identify some viruses passed along to me in e-mail from poor, benighted Windows people. I've deleted it, saving the world some troubles.
Re:Expense is more than cash at the register. (Score:3, Informative)
If you're not familar with the hardware, go to the Apple store and see for yourself what it looks like.
Or better yet, ask actual Mac owners, who have actually made upgrades to their Macs yet still enjoyed full coverage on the rest of their Macs. I'm one of them. I upgraded both the memory and the hard drive on my mini. Zero problems carting it up to a "Genius Bar" and getting supported.
Never stick a putty knife into a computer. I can't believe someone would even suggest such a thing.
The magical special tool which most Certified Apple Repair techs use to open the Mac mini is (drum roll) a bevelled putty knife. It's perfect for the job. Have you actually seen a Mac mini in person? Ever?
Upgrading your Mac yourself does void your warrenty. See for yourself on the Apple website: http://www.apple.com/legal/warranty/hardware.html [apple.com]
That link does not back up your claim. It just sayd that the warranty doesn't cover the shit that you, yourself, break while trying to upgrade it. That's true of pretty much any hardware warranty.
Don't believe me? Snap off the clips that secure the RAM on your Dell motherboard and call them to fix it for you.
Re:Missing the change... (Score:1, Informative)
Maybe yours is. But there are those of us who have lived off the modular design model for many years and are better off for it. Mainly those of us talented enough to design and build our own workstations. I'm sorry, but I refuse to keep investing in I/O cards I already own. I don't throw away hardware unless it can no longer meet my performance needs. Then again I spend more on SCSI hard drives than you do for an entire computer. But I can then move this high end expensive hardware to my new workstation when I do my next upgrade. In the mean time I can swap out my graphics card with a better one with out dumping my entire system:
Do I need to upgrade a video card? Why bother, when you can get an entire computer for $400-$600 why do I need replacable parts?
Maybe YOU don't, but there are PLENTY of people who do and will! You can buy all the $400 to $600 computers you want, they will play games like shit. Now maybe you don't care about that, but I do. I work AND play on my computer. I spent $400 on my last video card, and it was worth every penny!
Just remember, you may not take direct advantage of the modularity of computers by replacing your own hardware or building your own systems, but the cheap computer market is only made possible by the fact that computers ARE modular. Pretty much all of them are. YOU may not be able to replace the modular components, as they have been soldered to the motherboard, but they are modular none the less. System designers have a wide array of off-the-shelf ASICs (application specific Integrated Circuit) to choose from. And common bus interfaces to tie into. Most computer platforms use some sort of PCI standard, even if there are no expansion slots physically installed on the board most of your sound, USB, and firewire ASICs tie into these common bus types. With out this open standard, modular approach to computer hardware we would all be stuck in the days of expensive, custom hand made wire-wrap boards!!! So, you have been taking advantage of the modular design used in modern computers all this time, you just failed to realize this. Not your fault, not everyone is familiar with the details of hardware design down to the actual circuit level. Now you know...
At this point an Apple IS a PC and BOTH are modular in design, even if you cannot physically remove and replace the modular components that where used to build the system. Apple doesn't design a lot of ICs, they use off the shelf ICs just like Dell and everyone else. They used to get their CPUs from Motorola or IBM, now it's Intel (and probably AMD Opterons later on, once they wise up! heh). But I am willing to bet they used the same realtek/acs cheap ass ASICs for usb, network, and other built-in I/O in both their older and newer designs. Or perhaps WinBond, or any of the other standard ASIC producers on the market. Why re-invent the wheel at twice the cost for half the volume run? Apple couldn't afford to custom engineer chips even if they wanted to, neither can Dell. Well, not if you plan on selling systems at low margins any way...
So, to recap: all modern computer designs (even embedded) = modular
Re:Expense is more than cash at the register. (Score:2, Informative)
To be fair, I did wind up putting a huge scratch in the side of my Mini when my hand slipped while popping the case off to upgrade my memory. $600 computer or not, it bugs me that my sexy case was sullied by a huge gash caused because Apple's tool of choice (yes, it's in the official service manual) is a freaking putty knife.
Of course, a bit of rubbing compound took care of everything...